Two Seconds
by Marlex
Summary: After a job goes south, Parker and Hardison try to escape a highrise the fast way-down the side of the building. But when she feels their guide wire being cut, Parker will have to make a quick and calculated decision. (One-shot.)


**Author's Note:** This is a short one-shot I wrote for the Comment-Fic community on LiveJournal. The prompt was: Leverage, Parker, It is the curse of thieves and their right to fall to their deaths. _The Queen of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner_. This isn't the happiest of stories to be sure, but once the idea came to me, I had to write it. I hope you enjoy.

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Throughout her life, there was always those who saw Parker as being slow. If she actually cared for more than a fleeting moment to think about such things, she would probably accept that she was socially slow. Her mind, however, was anything but.

For her thoughts moved too quickly to stop and dwell for any length of time on something as meaningless as what people she didn't know thought of her.

Sure, there were rare moments when she had nothing to do and no distractions handy, but that was why she spent as much time with Hardison and Elliot as she did. Besides, when they were on a job, she only had to worry about her team and the mark.

And when on a job, her mind was, as Hardison would say with a smug look on his face, "overclocked to the max."

Which was why she had been able to speed through all of these seemingly random thoughts in the handful of milliseconds since she felt the harness begin to give way.

Just before, she and Hardison had been making their escape down the side of EnVid's corporate headquarters. As usual, the job hadn't gone exactly as planned, but they'd found the stolen computer files, and Elliot, whose cover hadn't been blown, was currently making his was with them out of the building, as she would put it, the slow way.

When they were casing the facility and their mark, it hadn't seemed likely that this would be a high-risk job, as the files they were after wouldn't cripple the company or its CEO, just restore the rightful owner's reputation and financial security.

But somebody on the roof apparently hadn't gotten the memo on that fact, since they were cutting through the harness' guide wire right now and would be through it in less than two seconds.

Since she felt the first twinge through the wire, she'd also thought about her team and how much she loved them. They were special. And Hardison was even more special, she had to admit.

Which was why she had, after quickly playing every possible scenario of events that could take place over the next two seconds and realizing there was none in which they both survived, she cut the cable connecting Hardison to her and the harness.

Hardison hadn't noticed anything else, but he did notice that. There wasn't time for a kiss, and she regretted it.

Instead, Parker kicked off from the building just enough to give her some momentum on the back swing. There wasn't enough time to perform a full arc before they cut through the rope, or they could have both made it out of this.

She dropped Hardison at the last moment, reaching up and kicking him as hard as she could in the chest as he fell away from her. The added force was just enough to break the window's glass as his back hit, allowing him to fall into the room beyond.

The resulting force pushed her back away from the building just as she felt the rope give way. For the briefest of moments, she saw Hardison on the floor of some random conference room, looking back at her in both horror and confusion. He always looks so cute when he's confused, she thought, purposefully ignoring the other half of the expression.

And then he was gone, and was replaced by windows. She knew enough to know that this would hit Hardison hard. She hoped he would be alright. Elliot would have to look after him.

But those were sad thoughts and she knew they had been at around the twentieth floor when they cut the rope, so she had about three and a half seconds left. Plenty of time to think about more positive things.


End file.
